A cool guide of Antidepressant Consumption around the world

This is such annoying chart. It implies that that these countries on top have more depressed people, but it correlates more accurately with how accessible the antidepressants are

I don't think it was designed to imply that. None of the language appears to steer the viewer to a specific conclusion, letting the viewer interpret it for themselves.

That being said, I would agree that the data itself represents both access to mental health care and culture (specifically, if that culture has a stigma against it).

I think some of the larger countries are not really useful in the dataset though. I'm curious how say, California and say, Alabama, would look in the dataset.
- Considering that 100+ is red, most is orange, low is yellow, it looks like "look these are the bad countries with depressed people".
- Yeah I think it the best would be comparisons in smaller areas, such US states or within Europe, where availability is similar within the area but culture might have bigger impact.
  
  I have no idea how you could measure the people who're in need of those medicine within area though, which would be the most interesting comparison. Are people in Finland more depressed than, say, Estonians?
- I don’t think it was designed to imply that.
  
  Are you suggesting that "Antidepressant Consumption" just accomplishes the goal of implying people are more depressed accidentally, then? It's very effective, even if it tries to hide behind language.
Russia is just using Vodka.
- Russia is sending all the depressed people to meat grinder
- In seriousness, this chart doesn't reflect self-medication.

I wonder if this overlaps with reported happiness in those countries.

More like a chart than a guide… still interesting, though

Seeing Portugal in second depresses me, but it's kinda expected :/

They invented a whole musical genre about it. So there's that.
- True that 😅
  Fado hits hard

Russians seem to be a very happy bunch.

Or just don't have access to proper mental health care
- No, that can't possibly be it. How could anybody not be happy to live in the greatest country in the world?
I think they use vodka.

Why is there an entire continent, Africa, without any data? And Asia is only just represented. Is it because they are very low users, or they just weren't considered in the data set? Or something else?

Hm, so roughly corresponding to middle class purchasing power with Norway (and Finland a bit) being the outliers?

My takeaway: Be More Like Norway, with its higher susceptibility to seasonal affected disorder but low meds usage. It makes me think they're doing something right.

Useless without actually showing what data was used to make this. Also, what does "number of antidepressants" mean exactly? Is the amount someone consumes, or the different brands they take?